Blanche Ely escapes Palm Beach Lakes 85-79 in double OT

February 23, 2013|By Steve Gorten, Staff Writer

POMPANO BEACH – Blanche Ely still has a chance to repeat as Class 7A boys basketball state champs.

The Tigers survived a major scare from Palm Beach Lakes in their home gym Saturday night before winning the regional final 85-79 in double overtime. Ely will play Bartow in a state semifinal in lakeland on Friday

Ely (25-1) started the second overtime with an 11-2 spurt and then held on against the pesky Rams (22-4). The teams came into the matchup ranked No. 1 and 5 in the state, respectively, in the FABC-Source Hoops poll.

Ely had the ball with 16 seconds left in the first overtime and a chance to win, but forward Kahlil Thomas missed a contested reverse layup as the buzzer sounded with the score tied at 71.

Thomas had a chance to give the Tigers the win at the end of regulation, too, but missed two free throws off the back of the rim with 4.3 seconds left after Ely had stolen Lakes' inbounds pass for the second consecutive time. Thomas had swished a pair of pressure free throws with 28 seconds left and the Tigers trailing 63-60. He had missed eight of nine free throw attempts before that. After a steal, Lee then split a pair of free throws with 19 seconds left.

Lakes led 34-32 at the half, reclaiming the lead on Kamil Williams' 3-pointer from the left wing just before the halftime buzzer sounded. It was a frenetic opening 16 minutes as Lee and Caines scored 16 points apiece to lead their teams. Caines notched five field goals in the first four minutes of the game.

Lakes opened up a 21-14 lead and led by eight when Ely ripped off 10 consecutive points in the second period to seize back the lead. Lee scored eight during the stretch, including back-to-back 3-pointers.